1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-window display system, which is capable of automatically highlighting a window to be operated and erasing or regenerating windows when necessary, among multiple windows displayed on a computer screen.
2. Background Art
xe2x80x9cGraphical User Interfacexe2x80x9d was first introduced into the market by Apple, adopted in the xe2x80x9cwindowxe2x80x9d-style program by Microsoft, and adopted in the OS/2 and the Presentation Manager by IBM. The computer system which uses the xe2x80x9cGraphical User Interfacexe2x80x9d has been recently introduced in this field. One of general features of the xe2x80x9cGraphical User Interfacexe2x80x9d is that this system allows displaying multiple windows or multiple display of windows simultaneously on a computer display screen. That is, multiple application programs can be executed (or wait for user""s input) in parallel in each computer screen which displays multiple application programs. It is also possible to generate a plurality of windows using a single application program. Therefore, a user can execute many different tasks while using many different windows. Although conventional operating systems such as DOS can execute and display only one application program at one time, the Graphical User Interface is provided with many features which are superior to conventional operating systems.
However, such new additional functions of the multi-window display system imposes a new burden on users. That is, the Graphical User Interface is capable of displaying almost infinite numbers of windows, but too many windows make their identification by the use difficult. In fact, a majority of windows are possibly partially or totally covered by other windows. Although this type of problem may arise even when the number of windows is 2 or more, but the problem becomes more conspicuous when the number of windows increases. When some of the windows are partially or totally covered by other windows, a majority of covered windows may not be detected if various operations are not executed. Therefore, it becomes practically difficult to use multiple windows at the same time.
Since the above-mentioned limitation for the Graphical User Interface practically restricts the number of applications or tasks which can be displayed or provided in parallel on the computer screen, such a limitation is likely to destroy the merit or the objective of the Graphical User Interface. In other words, when the computer is started as a new working space, the windows are displayed in line with a size and a position determined in advance by the initial values of each application. However, since there is a limit in displaying many windows without overlapping each other, sometimes one window becomes located above other windows, and the window above other windows partially or totally covers the underlying windows.
Since control information of a window is located within the frame of the window, a user cannot use information located outside of the window frame. Therefore, a window must be highlighted in order to make a user aware of a particular window. A few measures are provided to highlight the window, such as by decorating the window frame or by converting the title letters into reversed letter images. However, these emphasizing measures becomes less effective when the surrounding information becomes more complicated.
An example of a multi-window display system which can solve the above-described problems is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 6-214744. This publication uses a defocus technique for highlighting the window used for an operation by executing the defocus treatment for the display area, excluding the window to be highlighted. By so doing, the amount of information in the area except for the one widow is reduced so that the window is highlighted as an operation space. Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 9-190329, discloses a technique that, in a screen including a plurality of windows, if there is a window which has not been used for a predetermined time, this window screen is minimized into an icon image for being displayed at a specified location on the screen.
However, conventional techniques such as the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 6-214744 have following problems. That is, the first problem is that this technique enhances the visibility of the necessary window by defocusing other window area in the screen by using the defocus technique, excluding the concerned window, when a plurality of windows is displayed. In this case, although the display area excluding this window is defocused for highlighting the window, information displayed in the display area other than this window sometimes still bothers the user. Another problem is that this technique does not solve the problem when a user intentionally opens a plurality of windows for referring to contents of these windows. The technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 9-190329 also has a problem that it is not possible to carry out a parallel operation referring to a plurality of windows opened at the same time.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to solve the above problems in operating systems provided with a function to display a plurality of windows and to provide a system capable of automatically erasing unnecessary windows. Furthermore, the present invention provides a multi-window display system capable of displaying only windows selected by the user, automatically erasing unnecessary windows from the screens, and also capable of re-displaying the once erased information without necessitating a restarting operation for the application.
The present invention relates to operating systems having a function capable of displaying a plurality of windows and the present invention provides a multi-window display system, capable of displaying a necessary window at a top layer of a screen, automatically erasing any unnecessary windows, and then re-displaying them. Thus, it is possible for the multi-window display system of the present invention to improve the visibility of an operating area by displaying one or a plurality of windows activated by the user as the working space and erasing displays of other windows. In addition, when the erased windows are desired to be opened, the desired windows can be opened without having to restart the application system.
The first aspect of the present invention provides a multi-window display system, capable of displaying a plurality of windows on a computer screen, comprising: a detection program for detecting a focused window on which a focus is placed among a plurality of windows; a data base for storing information related to locations of all windows on the screen, information as to whether there are windows which mutually overlap other windows, and information as to whether there are indications for windows; an addition program for detecting information on location of the focused window and for adding information on the presence of the mutually overlapping windows based on said locative information of the focused window; a timer program provided with a timer for detecting as to whether said data base is updated; an erasure program for erasing a window determined to be unnecessary; and an idle-time set value which optionally sets the time until the unnecessary window is erased; wherein, a window, partially or totally covered by the other window, is erased from the screen when said data base is not updated for a predetermined period of time, and the erased window can be redisplayed by a task bar function when a focus shifts to the erased window.
The second aspect of the present invention provides a method for displaying and erasing windows by the multi-window display system according to the first aspect, wherein the method comprises the steps of; detecting by said detection program a newly focused window and shifting a process from said detection program to said addition program; in said addition program, detecting locative information of said newly focused window, calculating presence of the overlapping windows with said newly focused window based on locative information of all previously registered windows and the newly focused window, and adding the information of the newly focused window, if the newly focused window is a new and not registered window, and updating the data base, if the newly focused window is included in previously registered windows; always monitoring the data base by said timer program and clearing the internal timer value of said timer program when said data base is updated; repetitively making a comparison of said internal timer value with said optionally set idle-time value; shifting a control to said erasure program when said data base is not updated until the time exceeding said optionally set idle-time value; and obtaining information as to whether a window opening at present is the window to be erased with reference to said data base and erasing said window when said window is an object for erasure, in said erasure program.